You couldn't share the drain, as the splash-back would be horrendous. You could introduce a P-trap (oh the PUN!) in the built-in-plumbing (again!!) though, and then instead of flushing when you turn on the tap it triggers the flush.

The overhang would prevent the inebriated from parking their #2 in a #1 stall too...

As to the Johnson comment, I'd rather he be free than waiting twice as long and once done having some drunken schmuck trying to piss in the sink I'm washing my hands in.

"Why is this water warm? I never turned on the .. OMG!!!"

The real scary part is, urine is pretty much sterile, it would be an interesting science fair project to see what percentage of gas station bathrooms have tapwater less sterile than piss.

Mmm...all this talk about urinal-sinks is giving me a hankerin' for some donuts filled with pureed hamburger!

Here's an approximate timeline of the events as police and university officials have been able to recreate them.

7:15am

Monday morning dawns with students getting up early to head to class.

At the West Ambler Johnston co-ed dorm, home to 895 students, there's some kind of incident, and shots are fired. Police are called and find two people dead. They conclude it was an isolated domestic incident and that the danger is over.

8am

The doors of Norris Hall open for the day, as students enter the engineering building to go to class. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

9:26am

With many students unaware of the violence in their midst, word of the dorm shooting comes in a widely distributed email that's received across the campus.

"Subject: Shooting on campus," the header reads.

"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.

"The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411.

"Stay attuned to the http://www.vt.edu . We will post as soon as we have more information."

As far as authorities are concerned, whoever fired the shots has escaped the sprawling grounds of the university and is gone. It is now a police matter and the university believes it's safe for classes to continue.

9:45am

It's now more than two hours after the initial shooting and the lines at the Blacksburg, Va. 911 outpost light up en masse. Panicked students call on their cell phones to tell authorities someone has come to Norris Hall and begun randomly firing weapons at people inside.

His first target is a professor in one of the classrooms. He then turns his weapons on the stunned students.

9:55am

A second email is sent out by university brass. This one is far more terse and a lot more chilling.

"Subject: Please stay put," it begins.

"A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows."

10am

Within minutes of the second email, the university starts phoning resident advisers and asking them to knock on the doors of classrooms and dorm rooms, to spread the word about the danger faster.

But the campus is huge - some 1,050 hectares in length, described by one official as the size of a small city - and getting to everyone in such a busy environment over such a wide area is almost impossible.

While all this is going on, a gunman continues to blaze away in Norris Hall, picking off victims one at a time in rapid succession. His motive remains unknown, but his methodical task is succeeding all too well. Dozens lie either dead or seriously wounded.

10:05am

Students trying to escape the carnage find chains on some doors, closing off their only escape routes. As the killer approaches, many break open windows, jumping several storeys to the ground in desperation, preferring broken limbs to the possibility of being gunned down.

10:16am

The University sends out a third email.

"Subject: All Classes Canceled; Stay where you are.

"Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus."

Police are on scene, hustling shocked students off the property and away from the area, still unsure what they're dealing with.

Many are told to enter unaffected buildings and wait for the all-clear signal. Others are simply shooed off campus altogether. No one else is allowed on the premises.

As TV stations, networks and the web pick up the story, word starts spreading quickly - there has been a massacre at Norris Hall.

10:52am

The fourth and final email comes out of Virginia Tech's administration office. By now, just about everyone knows the worst has happened, as ambulances and police cars occupy the campus around the classroom building.

The email contains some details that would later prove to be false, but was based on the best information available as confusion swirled.

"Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody

"In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

"Police and EMS are on the scene.

"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.

"All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice.

"All entrances to campus are closed."

10:55am

First reports indicate 22 are dead and at least that number are injured.

But as the afternoon goes on, the scope of the tragedy escalates. The death toll rises to first 29, then 30, and finally settles at 32. The number of injured sits at around 15.

A doctor at one of the local hospitals indicates the gunman was extreme in his cruelty. He fired at least three bullets into every single victim, and all the wounded patients he examined were suffering from some kind of gun related injury.

"There were leg, arm, head, face (injuries), the more critical ones actually had head or facial shots. There were chest shots, leg shots, arm shots. He was just shooting to kill," relates ER physician Dr. Joseph Cacioppo.

11am

It has been more than three and a half hours after the initial shooting, when Norris Hall finally falls silent. The gunman saved his final bullet for himself, leaving the final bloody toll at 33.

So from this article, it appears "[The University President, Charles Steger] said investigators did not know there was a shooter loose on the campus in the interval between the two shootings because the first could have been a murder-suicide."

I know it's all to easy to point fingers and lay blame for these horrible situations, but I hope it doesn't turn out that the 2nd shooting really did occur because they just assumed he already killed himself.

I look forward to your analysis of Gillette's pricing strategy - $/blade when you buy the initial razor package is great! $/blade for razor refills? Not so much. Perhaps you use a straight razor that you hand-whet on a stone?

Er, that's a terrible analogy to another industry that rips off its customers.

Huh? It's an entirely appropriate analogy. This is how businesses work. The holy grail for every software company is an annuity-based business where they can charge you money over and over again after the initial sale. You have the option to stop shaving.

The razor analogy is a good one, but you didn't set it up equivalent to the Guitar Hero situation.

Right now you pay, let's say $10 for the shaver with one razor, and $10 for a 3-pack refill. Ignoring the cost of the shaver handle (like we're ignoring the cost of the packaging, shipping, and base game for GH), you initially pay $10/razor, and then $3.33 per razor in a 3-pack.

It gets cheaper when you're buying just the cartridge.

If we were to equate it to Guitar Hero, the refill would cost twice as much per cartridge. They would have to charge you $20/cartridge, or $60 for a 3-pack.

You're paying twice as much for each cartridge, and you're not even getting the razor handle along with it.

Just puree the cooked ground beef and cheddar cheese, scrape it into a pastry bag or tube, and squeeze it into a jelly donut shell. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and dip it into your favorite coffee. Delicious!

Wow, my stomach hurts already!

It's a work in progress, maybe Arkon could add pink sprinkles made out of chewable Pepto Bismol!

Hrmm but they are using donuts as buns... what I am suggesting is more along the lines of say a jelly donut with a cheeseburger inside not a normal burger patty with half a donut underneath and above. Still need more research.. and I might be open to a join venture Jlu.

Just puree the cooked ground beef and cheddar cheese, scrape it into a pastry bag or tube, and squeeze it into a jelly donut shell. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and dip it into your favorite coffee. Delicious!

So I just finished the game. I really enjoyed the experience, but I have to say I'm real disappointed in how little of the huge map you end up exploring. If it was on the PC version I could hope for an expansion pack to let me see the rest of the world, but on the DS it's just going to be a big tease.

Aw, they don't let you into the whole map? That sucks. You're right, it's just a big tease if they show you all this area, and then don't let you actually go into it. How much of the map do you actually get to look at?

Spoiler warning just in case, just listing where on the map you won't go:

Spoiler for Hiden:

You never enter the big snowy corner in the northwest, or that entire western strip of land below it. You don't visit that island in the center, or that land mass in the south. You also don't go further south than Drakenburg and Gallia. It looks like at least 2/3 of the map you don't get to see.

Quote from: Misguided on April 15, 2007, 02:16:32 PM

Incidentally, has anyone found a rune of water? I'd love to know where one is.

It does exist, but I don't remember where I got it. The runes usually seem to be listed in the order you got them, so from my list it looks like Water comes after Fire, Earth, and Air, but before Trolls and Shells.

So I just finished the game. I really enjoyed the experience, but I have to say I'm real disappointed in how little of the huge map you end up exploring. If it was on the PC version I could hope for an expansion pack to let me see the rest of the world, but on the DS it's just going to be a big tease.

Just out of curiosity, what level were you at completion?

I had just recently hit level 50. This is with me doing every single side quest, and capturing every town and rune. Never did instant action or "choose your opponent."

So I just finished the game. I really enjoyed the experience, but I have to say I'm real disappointed in how little of the huge map you end up exploring. If it was on the PC version I could hope for an expansion pack to let me see the rest of the world, but on the DS it's just going to be a big tease.

I agree that the ending was missing something, let's spice it up a bit:

Quote from: Orgull on April 12, 2007, 03:26:12 PM

Quote from: Scoop20906 on April 12, 2007, 02:47:09 PM

Thats a cliff hanger ending...

Did she ever produce any documents. Did he tax return get done? Did you just walk out????

I tried to use her bank book to get bank statements, but as I reached for the bank book I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. Before I could even begin to turn my head to investigate, I was hit from behind with a box-set of Matlock on VHS. I swiveled around to find Mrs. Client, a look of Hell's fury on her face, taking the tennis balls off of her walker's legs.

"You're in trouble, Tax Preparer, and yes, that's bad," she scowled.

I dove behind the paisley couch for protection, but it was no use. She reached into her knapsack filled with more rabid malnourished chihuahuas and began lobbing them over my cover. The direct hits were painful enough, with rows of frothy toothpicks latching on to my flesh, but the near misses were even worse--hitting the ground just made these feral nuggets all the more angry. Muffy herself smashed through the side room door and made a bee-line for my crotch. I tried to dodge, but Muffy made a last second turn and ripped out my Achille's tendon. I went down.

As I crawled along, fighting to keep the chihuahuas from my throat and groin, I desperately searched for something, anything, that I could use as a weapon. I could hear the scraping of Mrs. Client's deadly walker as she came ever closer for a finishing blow. My searching hands finally closed upon my last hope for survival--a bottle of denture adhesive.

The events of the next 30 seconds are far too NSFW to mention here, but in the end I was able to stand on one leg, surrounded by a dozen dead chihuahuas and a hogtied Mrs. Client.

I put them all in a garbage bag and mailed them in, the CRA accepted it just fine. Morons.

Didn't they intentionally ship more of the 60gb version to retailers pre and post launch? If that's true, then of course it would make sense that based on raw sales data the 60gb outsold the 20gb. A more telling analysis might be to look at how long eack sku remained on retailer shelves. If the 20gb moved much quicker at retail than the 60gb, that might be a better indicator of consumer demand than total units sold. But I'm not a six figure executive or product analyst, so wth do I know. Their sales data seems to just support the skew in sku's shipped

I had my sights set on the 20gb version...bastards!

Whether it was by demand as they claim or not (and all indications point to "not") they absolutely shipped more 60gbs to market than 20. The official company line is roughly 80/20, but I saw about 3 total since release. My guess is that it was even more rare, like 90/10 or something.

Well, Sony's line is that "the market preferred the 60GB at a 10:1 ratio." If we take that as a sales ratio during the time both versions were being sold, and we already know that every single 20GB sold out while you could find stacks of 60GB in stores...so if we take their stupid 10:1 purchase claim as truth, it means that at best there was one 20GB produced for every ten 60GB, and actually far fewer.

And it just hit me, if they do indeed offer 80s edition for download on Live, they're going to have egg on their face no matter how they price it. If they match the PS2 price, their other DLC songs look overpriced. If they keep their current pricing plan, they give everyone an even more obvious PS2 vs. Live pricing comparison that shows DLC to be overpriced.

But seriously folks, obviously Sony cannot abandon the platform. So is the idea and hope that once the titles are released sales will spike?

One thing's for sure, it'll be easier than ever to estimate how much of a system seller the big releases later this year are. When Lair or whatever's next is released, it'll practically be a 1:1 ratio of games:systems sold.

Well, it's true. Now my PS3 purchase is going to have to wait for an additional price drop or two, unless the blu-ray format has a definitive win and the PS3 is still the cheapest blu-ray player when I want one.

I agree it's smarter to have just one version of a console, but they got rid of the wrong one.

edit: Plus, how exactly would the two PS3 versions limit game development? A game that needs 21G on the hard drive? A game that makes use of the card reader? Somehow tie the chrome plating into the gameplay?

# In previous GTA games you were like a slave because you had to constantly take orders from people when doing missions. There is still an element of that in Grand Theft Auto 4, but you can also choose how you want to spend your time, for example "I want to hang out with him and her. I want to hang out with this guy because he always has fun things to do." Call him up and maybe you can hang with him. Maybe he'll answer. You have a lot of choice over what you want to do.

# In GTA 4, Rockstar is giving its players more freedom, more choice, and more sense of control over their destiny - the structure of GTA4's storyline is quite different to it's predecessors as it can be told in a number of different ways. You can talk to people in person, by cell phones, and there are a bunch of other ways of giving the player information. In general it's a different experience, with new ways of interacting with the characters and the game world.

There are some other really good tidbits in that interview, worth a peek.

Remember that the game is designed around having multiple playthroughs. Don't expect to be able to rescue everyone from the start, and feel free to die in a blaze of glory as you gain XP and new skills for the next run.

There has always been a system in place for punishing athletes and celebrites who break the law. It's called "the legal system".

Are you saying the NFL shouldn't punish athletes who misbehave? I have a personal conduct clause in my employment agreement. I don't see why NFL players shouldn't be held to that same standard.

I read that as saying that you think employees fear punishment from their employer more than from the government when they break the law. I don't think it's the observation you intended to make, but I think it holds some truth!

So... what's more important to people: clearing the backlog, or spending time enjoying the games in it until you're satisfied with the time you put in, whether it be a short game or a long one?

Those are the same thing to me. Clearing my backlog doesn't mean I'm going to be slogging through un-fun sections just for the sake of hitting the end. My backlog is filled with games that have a lot more joy to give me, but were pushed aside by a newer must-have title. Off the top of my head, I got distracted partway through: FFXII, Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Rogue Galaxy, FFIII, FFVI, Dead Rising, Zelda Twilight, God of War I, Phoenix Wright I & II, and more.

All top tier must-have games for my taste, but they're all on pause because I got distracted by Puzzle Questing and dusting off my PS2 Guitar Hero. And besides already out games I want to buy, like Gears of War, Paper Mario, R6:V, and God of War 2, I've got Forza 2 and Mass Effect looming ahead ready to suck up my time.

There's just too much excellent gaming to be had these days, plain and simple.

Now I'm glad I held back the temptation to trade in my PS2 version for the 360. I'm perfectly happy with I & II, 80s edition should be reasonably priced, and I just might consider the PS2 version of GHIII when it comes out.

Of course, all this willpower will vanish if they release a David Bowie pack on Live.